Shalders William Image 1 Transvaal 1904

Kimberley, Cape Province born right-handed batsman William Shalders made his debut in first class cricket playing for Griqualand West in the 1897-98 season, and he played a further season with the province before the Second Boer War. He made his Test match debut for South Africa against England at Cape Town in April 1899, but was out in single figures both innings.

He was a member of the Kimberley Town Guard during the Siege of Kimberley (October 1899 to February 1900) and was awarded the Queen’s South Africa Medal and the Kimberley Star. He also later served in the First World War.

He first played for Transvaal in the 1902-03 season, and was a stroke-playing opening batsman whose impetuosity often led to his dismissal in the twenties or thirties. While in England he also played for London County.

He toured England with the South African team in 1901, 1904 and 1907, playing 58 of his 88 first-class matches in England and scoring his two first class centuries there. In 1901 he was the South Africans’ second-highest run-scorer, with 782 runs at an average of 30.07, with a top score of 103 against Somerset. His highest first-class score in South Africa was 93, the highest score of the match, in an innings victory for Transvaal over Natal in 1903-04.

His highest Test score was 42 in his third Test, when South Africa took a first-innings lead of 65 over Australia at Johannesburg in October 1902, only to lose by 159 runs. For the 1904 team he had an excellent record, scoring 842 runs and averaging 27. He made a valuable 38 when South Africa beat England by one wicket in the 1905-06 series. Without being one of the stars of the famous South African side in 1907, Shalders he scored 108 against Hampshire and came sixth on the list for the whole tour, getting 747 runs in 22 matches, with an average of just under 22. His best scores in the three Test matches were 31 and 24 not out at The Oval, which proved his twelfth and final Test match.

His final season of first class cricket was 1908-09 by when he had played 88 first class matches, scoring 3,351 runs at an average of 23.27 with 2 centuries and 14 half centuries. He also took 6 wickets with his occasional right-arm medium pace bowling at an average of 23.16, with a best return of 3-30, including one wicket in a Test match when he returned 1-6 against England at Johannesburg in March 1906, bowling J.C. Hartley in England’s first innings.

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